Huawei aims to overtake Samsung as No. 1 smartphone player by 2020

Huawei CEO Richard Yu gives a press conference to present the new Huawei Balong 5G01, a 3GPP 5G commercial chipset on February 25, 2018 in Barcelona, on the eve of the inauguration of the Mobile World Congress (MWC).

Yu addressed the tough conditions in the U.S., saying it’s not necessary to be in the market in order to grow.

“China and U.S. trade war is creating a higher barrier for us. Because the consumer business is so big, I think we can focus on other market rather than U.S. market,” he said.

“The market is so big, we don’t need to wait for the U.S. market. Instead we can put more energy on the global market,” Yu said, adding that Huawei hopes to return to the U.S. but will “have to be patient.”

Chinese vendors like Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are its key rivals, while Samsung won’t be dislodged from the number one spot easily.

Samsung Mobile’s CEO DJ Koh told CNBC in an interview in September that the company was switching its mid-tier smartphone strategy to bring more innovative features to its lower-priced phones, a move which could help it fend off the threat of Huawei. That strategy was seen with the Galaxy A9, the world’s first smartphone with a quad lens rear camera, which was released in October.